The present invention generally relates to water heaters, and more particularly relates to apparatus for producing inlet water turbulence in a water heater storage tank for the purpose of inhibiting the buildup of sediment on the bottom interior surface of the storage tank.
Residential water heaters conventionally comprise a storage tank enclosed in an insulated jacket structure and adapted to receive and store pressurized water for on-demand delivery to plumbing fixtures, such as sinks, showers and tubs, to which the tank is operatively connected. Cold water from a pressurized source thereof is typically delivered into the storage tank through the open lower end of a dip tube that extends vertically through the tank. Water delivered to the tank is heated by fuel-fired or electric heating means operatively associated with the tank, and a portion of the heated water is periodically discharged from the tank, through an outlet fitting thereon, to the plumbing fixtures to which the water heater is connected, As a quantity of hot water is discharged from the tank in this manner, a corresponding quantity of unheated water is automatically delivered into the interior of the tank via its cold water supply dip tube.
As is well known, a problem typically encountered in water heaters of this general type is the buildup, over time, of sediment on the bottom interior wall of the storage tank. This buildup is the result of undissolved particulate matter delivered with the cold makeup water into the tank interior and settling onto the bottom tank wall. In an attempt to inhibit this undesirable sediment buildup a variety of inlet water agitating or turbulator devices have been previously proposed for connection in the cold water inlet supply line (which may be the previously mentioned vertical dip tube or a piping structure entering the side of the tank).
In general, these devices are designed to create an agitated cold water discharge pattern within the tank that serves to increase the time during which the incoming particulate matter is held in suspension above the bottom tank wall before settling onto such wall, and also to stir up particulate matter that settled onto the bottom tank wall during previous hot water demand periods. This, in turn, is designed to permit an increased quantity of particulate matter to be discharged through the tank outlet fitting during periods of cold water supply inflow to the tank.
Previously proposed inlet water agitating and turbulator devices of this type generally described above commonly have a variety of problems, limitations and disadvantages associated therewith such as mechanical complexity, relatively high fabrication and installation costs, and less than optimum agitation patterns. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a water heater with improved inlet water turbulator apparatus that eliminates or at least substantially reduces the above-mentioned problems, limitations and disadvantages commonly associated with conventional turbulator and agitating devices of the type generally described above.